MerseyCare Julie Ann are committed to creating positive social value in our local community

In summary

• MerseyCare Julie Ann has received external recognition for investing in local communities
• The achievement of Social Value Quality Mark Level 1 recognises the organisation’s commitment to skills development, job creation and the wellbeing of local people.
• It shows we are aligned with the local authority’s values and vision to create fair, inclusive communities in which everyone has a chance to succeed.
• The work we are doing to train care workers will help raise standards in the sector and address the skills gap.

Looking ahead

MerseyCare Julie Ann has made a series of pledges for 2022-23 that will help us build on our ambition. These form part of our new Social Value strategy.

Our pledges

We have 7 social values pledges put in place, to ensure we are doing everything in our power to support in any way that we can:

• Economic – We aim to support the community by using local businesses for our supply chain, as well as adhering to the National Living Wage and ensuring we are promoting a 0% pay gap.
• Health & Wellbeing – Whilst we have an employee assistance programme put in place for our staff, we also aim to support flexible working where possible, and support the mental health of our staff by ensuring we have a 1:100 ratio of mental health first aiders in each branch.
• Education and Skills – We pride ourselves of the level of education that we provide in our 4-day induction training courses, as well as promoting career progression as much as possible through available qualifications and apprenticeships.
• Social & Community – In our pledge to support the local community, we aim to raise £3000 by 2024 as a region for both local and national charities, as well as maintaining high levels of communication with our staff at all times to achieve high overall satisfaction rates.
• Employee & Volunteering – It is important that we maintain demographic transparency regarding gender, age and nationality across the region, promoting equality. We also aim to deliver a total of 100 hours per year across the region of local and skilled volunteering.
• Environmental – We aim to reduce paper usage and single-use materials drastically, whilst conserving energy wherever possible in our offices to reduce the overall impact on the environment.
• Leadership – Here at MerseyCare Julie Ann, we take pride in the level of communication we have with our staff, as well as adhering to an open-door policy at all times for all of our staff members.

At MerseyCare Julie Ann, we believe it is extremely important to ensure that we are doing all that we can to support not only our staff and service users, but also our local community and the environment. We currently have our Bronze Social Values award and are working towards our Silver Social Values award.

It is our job to ensure that not only are we supporting our staff and service users, but as a domiciliary company, it only makes sense to also provide support to the wider community at the same time.

About the Social Value Quality Mark

• The Social Value Quality Mark recognises distinction in values-led business that benefits customers, communities and the planet. It is one of the most rigorously tested standards of its kind in the UK.
• MerseyCare Julie Ann will now seek to move onwards and upwards to Level 2 Accreditation.

Social Value Projects

Fundraising/Volunteering

At MerseyCare Julie Ann, we take pride in fundraising for both local and national charities across the UK – in  2024 alone, we had raised just over £6,900 for charities including Cancer Research, The Care Workers Charity, and Zoe’s Place. By fundraising for charities close to our heart, we can help fund their services and research into important causes.

Service User Events

We also run a number of Service User events at our Liverpool Head Office, as well as in the community. Annually, we run our ‘Christmas Hamper Project’, delivering hampers full of gifts to Service Users who are alone at Christmas. Each year, we travel around the community delivering these hampers, and putting a smile on our service users faces.

Community Events/Volunteering

Whilst we run a number of events at our Head Office locations, we also ensure we are engaging in our local community at every opportunity. For example, we host a number of hiring events at local community centres, to ensure we are staying engaged with our local community and supporting local businesses.